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Era Novum
Project: Era Novum ' Pitiless Progress ' ' After the loss of Cragscar and the breaking of the siege of Fort Fair Maiden, a seed of doubt has grown in Emperor Darrien Maddox Verk. While some minor skirmishes had occurred at the border, it was surely nothing to worry about. However these recent losses somewhat disturbed Verk. His foolish fathers had been content to let the Empire live on as some meager hamlet of a nation, and bow to the whims of peasants and weaklings. He would not let his glorious Empire fall, and so he went about forming a solution. In time, Verk had come upon an answer. His Empire was already in the business of mass producing wondrous items, but innovation had been slow. His soldiers had little trouble with what they had, but the Deadeyes’ unconventional tactics and heavy use of firearms told him he would need to make a few changes. His first idea was a sort of Imperial think tank, comprised of the brightest and most sadistic minds the Empire had to offer. They would have limitless access to whatever resources they needed to create new and innovative ways of winning the war, let it be gold, alchemical ingredients, magical artifacts or even test subjects culled from his own cities. Upon the advice of his council, Verk assembled a command staff of four individuals, prodigies in their fields. Their expertise would collectively encompass the fields of magic, technology, alchemy, and the emerging field of magitek. With their combined genius and a blank check from the Emperor, the newly minted Project: Era Novum would be tasked with creating something, anything, that could once and for all quash all threats to Verk’s power. ' ' '''Department Leaders' ' ' Veneficus Saeva ' '''The sorcerer Veneficus Saeva is the head of the Mage Department of Era Novum, overseeing all things magical. Officially, it is believed he is of an Aberrant bloodline, explaining his unique approach to problems and odd viewpoints, but to those with deeper magical knowledge suspect something far more Impossible. His behavior is notably unusual, standing out even among the questionably sane heads of the departments. Once, in the middle of a discussion with one of the lower ranking mages, he was reported to suddenly throttle the poor man and drag him screaming down to his personal laboratory; inhuman noises and roars were heard coming through the door for hours. The Mage Department has made several advances under his leadership, despite the high casualty rates among staff in his experiments. One of their crowning achievements is the Capture Orb. Only a single prototype of the experimental design exists, but it has proven to have much potential. If one were to ask Veneficus the function of the artifact, and if he were not in a fell mood, he would probably answer in a strange mixture of magical theory, limericks and lavender dumpling recipes. The perceptive would extrapolate that the Orb is capable of selectively sealing and unsealing the essence of any creature inside of itself, acting as a sort of storage device for living (and unliving) beings. If not stopped, the insane sorcerer might eventually be able to mass produce this creation, allowing Verk’s army to easily and safely capture any person, or carry an entire zoo of dangerous beasts to command. ' ' '''Genio Destruttivo' ' The mechanical genius known as Professor Genio Destruttivo leads the efforts of the Technology Department to develop revolutionary tools of destruction, such as firearms and siege weapons. Holed up in his workshop, Genio has been quite the hermit ever since his assignment. Only the irregular meetings of all the department heads or visits from the council are enough to drag him away from his work. Out of all the heads, Genio is probably the most likable, at least at first. He often greets visitors as cherished guests, and even his test subjects are treated as selfless volunteers to be honored for their sacrifice. His affable personality however, does nothing to protect those that are selected as ‘volunteers’ as he treats them as living targets. The corpses that are carted from his workshop are rarely in good condition, often shot full of holes, roasted, or blown to pieces from his weapons tests. The Technology Department also invests time and resources into a vehicle program, building and testing both light scouts and and armored hulks. Their most recent and promising design is the Maddox Heavy Gun Carriage. A strange crank operated vehicle, with wood and metal sheets arranged into an odd conical shape to deflect projectiles, such as the firearms used by the Deadeyes. Equipped with cannons to attack enemies and resistant to return fire, a Maddox stationed at Empire outposts and fortresses would severely increase the difficulty of raids and could be used to pacify unruly city populations. ' ' '''Almus Mam ' ' '''The enigmatic Almus Mam hails from a faraway and exotic land. Like most of the department heads, Almus holds no specific loyalty to the Empire, and merely wishes to practice his ‘art’ in a goal-oriented environment free from the constraints of ethics and resource management. However, his foreign nature combined with this lack of brainwashed fealty to the Emperor means he his held in high suspicion by the Imperial officials assigned to supervise Era Novum. This suits him just fine, as Almus always had a taste for the theatrical and appreciates having an audience as he works with his staff in the Alchemical Department. Dedicated to the research and use of chemical weapons, subtle poisons, and even the likes of truth serums and other esoteric poultices, Alchemical Department is likely the most promising laboratory in the field. Too bad they work for the wrong side. Almus runs his department somewhat differently than his fellows, mixing his laboratory work with educational demonstrations and even tutoring his underlings in the ways of alchemy. Compared to the staff of the Technology or Mage Departments, Almus’ alchemists spend much less time trying to avoid an untimely demise at the hands of their latest creations and more time improving their craft; Alchemical Department is likely the most productive of Era Novum. Their newest and most dangerous invention is the defoliant chemical code-named Weed Killer. Created from a mix of different venom and even treated with a few magical charms thanks to their Mage colleagues, Weed Killer’s devastating potential may not seem clear initially, until one thinks of the hit and run tactics of the Deadeyes. Without the cover of forests or a dependable supply of lumber, the insurgency would have nowhere to run and quickly find themselves short of a valuable resource. ' ' '''Kiseki Norodosha' The manipulative Kiseki Norodosha is, as an individual, likely the most dangerous of the department heads. The Magitek Department not only represents the most advanced technology available to the Empire, it also is the linchpin of Era Nova as a whole. The staff of Magitek work to bring together the advances of the other three departments and turn experimental prototypes into workable and mass produced designs. Thankfully, Era Nova as a whole was only recently initiated, or else the genius and charisma of Kiseki might have already produced a heavily armored tank, spewing noxious gasses when it isn’t deploying companies of troops from racks of Capture Orbs. The progress of Magitek is slow, as not only do they have to combine the results of relatively isolated laboratories, Kiseki himself often has to play peacemaker with the other department heads. The Magitek head has to balance the volatile insanity of Veneficus, the excitable psychopathy of Genio, and the arrogant detachment of Almus on a regular basis; likely this kind of work by itself would lead to many men tearing their hair out in frustration. The difficulty of the job for Kiseki however is more than outweighed by his complete and utter devotion to the Empire. Unlike the rest of the department heads, Kiseki loves the Empire and is loyal to both Darrien Verk and the Verk Empire as a whole. In addition to keeping them from killing each other, Kiseki’s job also demands that he keep the other heads on task instead of abusing the generosity of the Empire to pursue their own private projects.